Blues Trail to Recognize Oktibbeha County

MISSISSIPPI BLUES TRAIL RECOGNIZES OKTIBBEHA COUNTY’S MUSICAL LEGACY

Jackson, Miss. (November 8, 2011) – On Friday, November 11, 2011, Oktibbeha County will receive a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail. The marker unveiling ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum located at 206 Fellowship Street in Starkville, Miss.

Oktibbeha County has produced several blues artists who achieved fame for their recordings and live performances in Chicago, California and other areas. Blues Hall of Famer Big Joe Williams (1903-1982), who waxed the classic “Baby, Please Don’t Go,” was born close to Noxubee Swamp on the southern edge of the county. Tony Hollins (1910-1959), who hailed from the Starkville-Osborn area, and Sturgis native Lou Thomas Watts (1934-1970), aka Kid Thomas, left small but significant bodies of recorded work.

Oktibbeha County blues performers have been featured at local clubs, restaurants, juke joints, festivals and Mississippi State University campus events, and the music of locally-born blues recording artists has reached audiences around the world. Big Joe Williams, one of the most prolific and well-traveled figures in blues history, maintained close ties to Oktibbeha County throughout his life. A longtime resident of the Crawford area, Williams recorded hundreds of tracks between 1935 and 1980. He also acted as a session producer and talent scout, resulting in recordings made at a Starkville radio station by Shortstuff Macon, Glover Lee Connor, Williams and his uncles, Bert and Russ Logan, in 1965 and 1971.

In 1941, Williams and guitarist Tony Hollins, whose family lived in Osborn in 1910, became the first artists to record the song, “Crawlin’ King Snake,” which was later covered by John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan and the Doors. Hollins also made the earliest recording of the blues standard, “Cross Cut Saw.” During the 1930s and '40s, Hollins lived and performed in the Delta and was regarded as a major influence by Hooker.

Lou Thomas Watts, who recorded under the name Kid Thomas, among others, left Sturgis at an early age when his family moved to Chicago. Watts said he taught drums to schoolmate Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, who later gained fame as a member of the Muddy Waters band, and in turn Smith taught Watts to play harmonica. Watts made records that ranged from frantic Little Richard-style rock ‘n’ roll to deep Chicago harmonica blues. After moving to Wichita and then to Los Angeles, he was just gaining the attention of the international blues community when he was shot to death by a distraught father whose son had been struck and killed by Watts in an automobile accident.

In Starkville, singer Willie Harrington and bassist Raymond Doss founded the Flames, a popular soul, funk and blues band in 1972. The group broke up in 1978, but was revived in 1997. Over the years, the Flames performed at local venues including the Underground, Rick's Cafe Americain, the Dark Horse Tavern and the Veranda. Emmett “Piano Red” Hudson (1909-1993) from Clay County, also performed for college crowds and at clubs in the area. Guitarist Big John Henry Miller, who recorded in Chicago in 1965, was a Starkville native, as was St. Louis guitarist Little Robert Weaver (1933-1993). Social Security files suggest that Lonnie Williams, a blues guitarist who, according to Williams, was an important local influence on Elvis Presley in Tupelo, may have also been born in Starkville.

Blues-related activities have been a part of the region. Some included the Osborn Blues Festival in the 1980s, the long-running Down Home Blues Festival just north of the county line in West Point, and an event that honors a predecessor to blues music, ragtime: the Ragtime Jazz Festival (sponsored by the Mississippi State University Library and the Charles Templeton Sr. Music Museum, repository of a large music collection amassed by Templeton, a Starkville businessman).

With over 140 markers, the Mississippi Blues Trail is a museum without walls taking visitors on a musical history journey through Mississippi and beyond. The trail started with the first official marker in Holly Ridge, the resting place of the blues guitarist Charley Patton, and winds its way to sites honoring B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Son House and others. Out-of-state markers are located in Chicago; Memphis; Los Angeles; Muscle Shoals, Alabama; Ferriday, Louisiana; Helena, Arkansas; Rockland, Maine; Grafton, Wisconsin; and Tallahassee, Florida.

For more information about the Mississippi Blues Trail, visit http://www.msbluestrail.org or explore the official Mississippi Development Authority’s Tourism Web site, http://www.VisitMississippi.org. You may also contact Alex Thomas, MDA Tourism’s Music Trails program manager at 601.359.3297 or athomas@mississippi.org.